I’ve lived happily with CDs since the 1980s. Got Roon because I want to explore better sound quality.
Blushing and hiding, I ask: is there any way at all in which I can ‘rip’ my collection of several thousand Classical (from plainchant to contemporary) music (SA)CDs onto my ‘Late 2014’ iMac for use with Roon and actually gain in sound and audio quality, please?
I know I can change the file format - I have the software to ‘convert’, say, MP3 to FLAC.
But isn’t it the case that if the quality just isn’t there on CDs, I can’t get anything better out?
The very first thing that needs to be said is that the quality absolutely is there on well recorded CD’s. So the question is ‘have you heard this improvement of SACD over CD’ in your own system and what gear are you using to achieve this?
I know that ripping even a dozen a day CDs is a huge task. So if I embark upon it, and transfer everything into FLAC for Roon, I want to be sure I’ll hear the difference.
If not, the point would only be the convenience of not having to walk across the room to the CD player .
You would need equipment to convert the SACDs to computer files. dbpoweramp or a similar ripping program would be able to handle the CD to Flac conversions. The below link offers a service who rips SACD and CDs, but if you have the time, CDs are pretty easy to rip. I had Golden Ear Digital rip 50 SACDs for me a few years ago.
I wouldn’t expect a significant improvement converting CD to Flac, but much of the performance will depend on what equipment you are using for playback. I use playback equipment designed for computer music file playback. It also has a CD attachment.
The first rule has always been that there are no idiotic questions, only idiots who don’t ask questions
Yes and no.
Yes you can rip your physical media, and have it handled by Roon and integrated to a great streaming service for even more great music.
Now, SQ-wise, let’s start with the bad news:
You probably can’t gain anything audible from ripping. In many cases, you can gain the assurance that your rip is absolutely perfect. It isn’t much, but it’s already better than any CD player can do (because on a computer, the data extraction from the disk isn’t real time, so it can go back and fix what needs to be fixed).
Here’s the good news (but you’re going down the rabbit hole):
What Roon can do that is very audible is help you with room correction. This, if it is well done, will significantly improve the sound of your entire collection.
There are caveats:
a) you’re either going to face a fairly steep learning curve or going to have to pay someone to make the correction for you.
b) you’re going to have to measure your room with a special microphone
c) once your room is measured, no more moving furniture around.
That isn’t a good idea: the information that was lost in converting to .mp3 can’t be retrieved by re-converting to .flac. Please rip your CDs straight to .flac, or another lossless codec.
Do you own a standalone DAC? I have an (Oppo UDP-203) and while it offers good performance, there are some DACs out there which are a clear step up. The UDP-203 is also a Roon Ready endpoint.
A good start would be to rip the CD files to Flac, and continue use of your OPPO to handle SACD duty. Not sure how many SACDs you would want to covert to .dsf.
I haven’t used XLD, but dbpoweramp is very easy to use. The CDs are simple to rip. The SACDs require special equipment. CDs take around 10 minutes each. If you have a lot of older CDs you many want to invest in a tagging program that has matching metadata. Bliss and SongKong are a couple floating around. I am using SongKong at the moment. SongKong offers discounts on this forum page from time to time.
I wondered about that too: spoke by phone at length with the tech depts. of both AudioQuest and Sennheiser. Their assurances - fortunately - were good. Work beautifully together.
I suspect - as @rrwwss52 suggests - that I really should leave my SACDs alone, at least to start with. And concentrate on ripping as many CDs as I can to FLAC directly.
I wouldn’t bother with FLAC for 16/44 - it was useful when HDD space was expensive, but it’s so cheap now i use AIFF - it’s essentially WAV but with decent metadata
I’d also check the likes of Tidal etc to see what overlap there is with your current collection - ripping only those that are not available (and that you actually listen to) - especially if you’re considering paying to have them ripped. The point being it’d be far more cost effective to subscribe - and give you access to more music
Streaming can offer very good SQ, I’d anticipate far better than your OPPO, which while very good is old tech (I still use my ‘83 as a video source and it’s fine)
I moved from a Mark Levinson Ref 31.5/360S to PC (heavily modified) because it was better and from that to an SOtM streamer - because it was better - for local and streamed sources
The exercise of aggregating all my music (collected over 40 years - with LPs and cassettes before that, of course) in one place is really one of convenience. And Roon is excellent, as I’m finding out… new user.
I have a Primephonic subscription. But also many older CDs which may not be there; and to which I do listen.
When you say what you do about the old tech OPPO, I suppose it brings up another question: whether to consider replacing it, or rip, rip rip!
.